Lieberman Opposed to Health Care Public Option

Connecticut’s junior Senator Joe Lieberman has had plenty of practice aggravating his fellow Democrats over the last few years and I suspect his remarks about health care reform this weekend will aggravate them a bit more.

During an interview with Bloomberg News broadcast this weekend Sen. Lieberman expressed opposition to the public option in Pres. Obama’s health care reform plan:

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) said this weekend that he opposes a public option plan for consumers in a healthcare reform plan to emerge from the Senate.

“I don’t favor a public option,” Lieberman told Bloomberg News in an interview broadcast this weekend. And I don’t favor a public option because I think there’s plenty of competition in the private insurance market.” …

“We have a unique opportunity, a real opportunity to do this year what we’ve been trying to do for years, which is to reform American healthcare,” Lieberman said. “I think the one thing that will stop that is pressure on the so-called public option.”

If nothing else Lieberman’s comments should give cover to skitish moderate or centrist Democrats like Mary Landrieu (LA) and Ben Nelson (NE) who, though they haven’t announced opposition to it, have sounded at least skeptical about the public option.